Particle-laden Polymer-stabilized Liquid Crystals

Abstract

Motivated by the need of improving the performance of liquid crystal displays, this study investigates the electro-optic properties of particle-laden polymer-stabilized liquid crystal composites (PLPSLCs). The dependence of the properties on a particle concentration at a fixed polymer content was studied for these materials. To facilitate the systematic analysis of the three-component systems, first, polymer-stabilized (PSLCs) and particle-laden (PLLCs) liquid crystal composites based on target materials were investigated. A PSLC composite demonstrated behaviour typical for polymer-stabilized systems: the overall response time was decreased compared with a pure liquid crystal but at the cost of the increased threshold voltage. At the same time, polystyrene nanoparticles used for the PLLC composites did not significantly change the electro-optic properties of the liquid crystal. Importantly, when used together, the polymer and nanodopants showed better performance: the threshold voltage was reduced compared to the PSLC composite while the advantage of the fast response time provided by the polymer network was retained. A possible explanation of this effect can be a decrease in the effective polymer concentration caused by the particle-induced distortion of the polymer network. However, further research is necessary to clarify what exact processes took place in the PLPSLC systems.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Mark Dickinson (Supervisor) & Ingo Dierking (Supervisor)